The Saturday Daily Mail sold nearly 700,000 copies more than the best-selling Sunday newspaper in May, challenging the tradition of big political stories going to Sunday titles.
In May, the Saturday Mail sold 1.75m copies, compared with top-selling Sunday newspaper the Sun on Sunday which sold 1.07m (including 68,700 bulks), a difference of more than 681,000 copies, ABC figures show.
Michael Gove and Sajid Javid are among the Conservative leadership hopefuls to have used the Saturday Mail for stories that might traditionally have gone in the Sunday papers.
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Gove used the paper to confess to having taken cocaine when he was younger, which made the splash (pictured, above) while Javid set out his bid to be the next UK Prime Minister in an article that ran as a spread on Saturday (pictured, below).
The Sun’s sister Sunday title first launched in 2012 following the closure of the News of the World a year earlier. In 2013 it underwent a refresh and became the Sun on Sunday.
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Circulation figures for May show that Sunday newspapers recorded the biggest year-on-year circulation drop among national news titles, in part due to a extra copies being put on for the Royal Wedding last May.
The Sunday Times had a circulation of 704,000 in May, while the Mail on Sunday sold 984,500 copies.
The Sun’s Saturday edition sells 1.6m copies.
Overall the Daily Mail has closed the gap on the The Sun, trailing the UK’s best-selling newspaper by 45,500 copies (Mail: 1.18m, Sun: 1.23m – ABC, May 2019) once the Sun’s 76,300 bulk sales are removed.
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